I have just been quoted £245 pa servicing for a new Vaillant 12kw machine, this is certainly more than I expected and more than servicing my oil boiler cost (and that actually involved more than just cleaning leaves out).

What figure are other people paying for servicing and does it pay to shop around (whilst maintaining RHI compliance)?

My supplier is asking for £175 per year.

We're charged £250 per year, but it's one of those things you have to pay for in order for the warranty not be voided. While the servicing is quite straightforward, it's important to get the heat exchanger cleaned if you have any debris or bits in the system which helps with the efficiency and overall performance.

I have just been quoted £300 to service my heat pump. How much is everyone else paying?

Last year we paid £193+vat to have the ASHP and unvented cylinder serviced. They also inspected every radiator in the house and 3 underfloor heating manifolds.

Our installer quotes £160 for an ASHP service, but I suspect this doesn't include the cylinder.  Mitsubishi themselves have a price of £162 on their website for ASHP only, going up to £243 for ASHP + cylinder.

I haven't really shopped around too much yet as our system was only installed a couple of months ago.

Do people generally take out service plans which include an element of emergency cover for their systems?  Again Mitsubishi have a price on their website of £36 per month, or £388 one off payment, for their "3 Diamond" cover which includes all parts and labour in the event of a breakdown.  Our installer charges £40 per month for the same service.

As a comparison, we used to pay £180 per year for our annual LPG boiler service and breakdown cover.

Global Energy Systems charge £250 – this entails cleaning out the heat exchanger in the heat pump along with a few other small things. 

I’ll get the ball rolling.

Our manufacturer (Global Energy Services) charge £216 (this price is now 2-3 years old) and we're not having the heat pump serviced because we do it ourselves. Here's what the £216 buys you:

One of our qualified engineers will come to your house and ensure the system is running safely and efficiently. They will service the system and carryout number of tasks including:

Grant charges me £250.80 for a combined service of a 10kW Aerotherm ASHP, plus a 210L pre-plumbed cylinder. 'ServicePlan2' A condition of the product warranty is annual servicing by Grant to preserve the validity. I guess that's the norm.

Here's what the ServicePlan2 covers:

GRANTUK.COM "https://www.grantuk.com/media/5053/grant-serviceplan-ashp-brochure-october-2022-lr.pdf"

50% of it work, 50% of it tyre kicking and tick box visual. I guess that's usual. Total time taken was under 2hrs for the service visit. 

On the occasion I got my former oil boiler fully serviced, (rarely!), it involved a full strip and clean all internal baffle plates, removal of the burner head, new injector, in line filter, etc, and full combustion test. It was a 3hr+ job and cost around £150.

On the flip side, my whole house energy cost is under £1K a year now, compared to the £2.2K I was paying with the old oil boiler. Not due to the ASHP however, but due to solar PV+battery+smart TOU tariff. Electrification of my CH & DHW just allows me to leverage the savings the renewable micro-generation and BESS brings to best advantage.

I have heard of ASHP annual service charges being £300, about 3x the cost to service a small combi gas boiler. ASHP OEMs seem to be taking advantage of a relatively niche heating appliance with limited service option in the marketplace.

The full nuts to soup, 3 Diamond Mitsubishi service package is now £456 annually. It covers heat pump, cylinder and controls, annual service with complete muck out and clean of the oily bits,  operational review and efficiency tweaking to ensure it is operating at optimal, priority response to call out, all parts and labour included. It is good value? I don't know how to answer that. My installer said that there is not a lot to go wrong in the Ecodan system, it is just that any part that does fail has a price tag with multiple zeros attached to it. 

If you are risk averse and really don't like the prospect of an extended wait without heating in the depths of winter then you are a sitting target for this package, cost not withstanding.  If you are relaxed about the repair costs or outage time or just plain skint then clearly you will avoid this. Whether that approach is "good value" I am not sure.

As more heat pumps are installed are more faults going to be chasing a competent engineer to fix them especially if you have no service contract.  I really don't know how to answer that poll.

Mitsubishi do offer lesser cost service packages with a trimmed down offering of benefits too.

Posted by: @abernyte

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3 Diamond Mitsubishi service package is now £456 annually

Very interesting, and thanks for sharing. Honestly, I’m shocked by the price. From what I’ve seen, it seems more like a service and insurance package combined, covering breakdowns, which should typically be covered by the warranty for the first few years. I’m curious if the cover still applies if the heat pump wasn’t serviced for the first few years and then maintenance starts in year 5, for example.